Controlling the Carrier-Envelope Phase of Ultrashort Light Pulses with Optical Parametric Amplifiers

Abstract

The phase link between signal, idler, and pump waves in a parametric interaction allows generation of an idler pulse with a phase independent of that of the input pulse. We suggest the use of a white-light seeded optical parametric amplifier as a self-stabilized source of few-cycle pulses, in which the phase of the electric field is exactly reproduced in each laser shot.

Compression of 1.8 μm laser pulses to sub two optical cycles with bulk material

“…At the moment, our sub two-cycle laser pulses are not CEP stabilized, but this is feasible using the Idler of a white light seeded OPA. 4 …”

Strong-field single-cycle THz pulses generated in an organic crystal

“…In fact, the phase fluctuation of the THz radiation is canceled since OR is equal to intra-pulse difference frequency generation with the two frequencies carrying intrinsically the same CEP offset. 18 Thus, the CEP offset is inherently locked due to the intrinsic intra-pulse phase coherence of the pump pulse even though neither the infrared pump laser nor the front-end Ti:sapphire laser is CEP stabilized. The intrinsic CEP stabilization of our THz source offers best conditions for the exploration of field sensitive phenomena since temporal field shapes identical to the one shown in Fig.…”

Ultrafast Mid-IR Laser Pulses Generation via Chirp Manipulated Optical Parametric Amplification

“…Compared to the signal pulse, the idler has advantages such as a longer center wavelength and a passively stabilized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) [76]. As proposed and experimentally investigated in [76], the white-light continuum pulse from the self-phase-modulation (SPM) effect retains the same CEP as that of the input pulse. When the pump and seed are produced from the same laser source, the CEP of the idler pulse is defined by ψ i = −π/2 + ψ p − ψ s = −π, which is stabilized passively.…”